~ Vietnamese American spoken word artist, writer and community activist

Lin: 467 by Bao Phi and Joua Lee

Aug 2012

Hello all,

This poem and video was originally conceptualized at the height of Linsanity as one in a trilogy — the first, “Lin. Sanity” by Giles Li and Ash Hsie, was posted last week – here it is.

My poem’s title, “467” alludes to the rank Jeremy Lin had in the NBA prior to Linsanity. It was inspiring to me, that someone who was told over and over again that he was not good enough, worked hard and believed in himself enough to keep working on it til he got his shot. Painfully, but not surprisingly, it seems many still are blind to that effort, and blind to the racism imbued therein.

When Jeremy Lin went down with an injury, the whole plan was put indefinitely on hold. The recent (and baffling) vitriol that sports media outlets have thrown Jeremy Lin’s way escalated the timeline. Thank you to all involved in making this video, and keep an eye out for another video in the trilogy (July 27, 2012)